Recently, portable electronic devices, e.g. cellphones, e-books or tablet PCs, have been very popular. Since such electronic devices are portable, it is necessary to properly wrap the portable electronic device for protection. Please refer to FIG. 1, which shows a conventional protector 1. The protector 1 is divided into a left portion and a right portion by a bending portion 13. A portable electronic device 2 is placed in the right portion of the protector 1. The surface of the portable electronic device 2 is mostly occupied by a screen 20. Since the screen 20 is transparent and easily broken, worn and soiled, it needs the protector 1 for protection. The left portion of the protector 1 can cover the screen 20 for protection. With the bending portion 13, the protector 1 can be opened and closed like a book, and kept as a unit. In, order to prevent the portable electronic device 2 from damage due to inward bending of the protector 1 by an external force, two substrates 10 (represented by the dotted lines in FIG. 1) are disposed inside the protector 1. Usually, the substrates 10 are made of a hard material. One substrate 10 is disposed in the left portion of the protector 1 and the other is disposed in the right portion. In order to lighten the protector 1 and save space, the bending portion 13 is usually made of a fabric 11 rather than a chain. The size of the fabric 11 is sufficient to cover two parallel substrates 10. Besides, each of the substrates 10 is sandwiched between two parts of fabric 11. One part of fabric 11 is disposed in the front and the other part is disposed in the rear. A specific width is reserved at a substantially central position of the fabric 11 so that the left side of the fabric 11 can directly contact the right side of the fabric 11. Hence, since the fabric 11 is suitable for repeated bending, the bending portion 13 is formed at the substantially central position of the fabric 11 naturally.
In order to fix the substrate 10 between the front part of the fabric 11 and the rear part of the fabric 11, the portion of the front part of the fabric 11 extending out of the substrate 10 is directly bonded to the rear part of the fabric 11 extending out of the substrate 10, usually in the way of ultrasonic welding. Therefore, a closed portion 12 is formed along the rim of the protector 1.
Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 along the A-A line. As shown in FIG. 2, the substrate 10 has a first surface 101 and a second surface 102. A first sheet 111 is disposed on the first surface 101, and a second sheet 112 is disposed on the second surface 102. That is, when the first sheet 111 is the above-mentioned front part of the fabric 11, the second sheet 112 is the above-mentioned rear part of the fabric 11; when the first sheet 111 is the above-mentioned rear part of the fabric 11, the second sheet 112 is the above-mentioned front part of the fabric 11. The first sheet 111 is boned to the second sheet 112 along the rim of the substrate 10 to form the closed portion 12. It is similar to the structure of the skin of a steamed dumpling. Hence, since there is no substrate 10 in the closed portion 12, i.e. the closed portion 12 is made of fabric only, the first sheet 111 and the second sheet 112 are usually made of fabric with a harder texture. Moreover, since the closed portion 12 is usually formed in the way of ultrasonic welding, it has a higher material density and tenacity. However, after long-term use, the closed portion 12 will be wrinkled, bended or even split due to extrusion and collision. That is, the first sheet 111 will be separated from the second sheet 112. Besides, users are easily to be slashed due to the thin and sharp structure of the closed portion 12.
In order to overcome the drawbacks in the prior art, a protector for a portable electronic device and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The particular design in the present invention not only solves the problems described above, but also is easy to be implemented. Thus, the present invention has the utility for the industry.